Katana Owners Club U.K.

Right hopefully someone can answer my question.

Which is: Why?

People with a long memory will recall that I do actualy have a Katana and I am in the process of rebuilding it (Stop sniggering at the back!) for the purpose of riding it on the road.

Now the only major modification/deviation from standard is that of replacing the original cast alloy wheels with a set of spoked GS750/1000 items.

So far so good. Front end sits absolutlly perfectly in the forks brake carriers/calipers lined up no issues about having to force anything to fit. So I'm happy with the front end.

Rear wheel is another matter.

originally when I got this set of wheels they were said to be off a GS1000, so when I fitted them with the spacers in the order Mr Suzuki intended it all went well until the rear caliper was dry fitted. I then had an issue getting the caliper on, in fact it would not fit at all as it was spaced too close to the disc. I discovered that thers is what Suzuki call a "Shim" behind the disc on the spoked wheel GS's. All fitted fine then.

But I did not realise until recently that there was another problem. When looking at the bike from the rear it became obvious that there was something out of alignment. I have looked at every thing I can think of, and tried one or two different routes to find out where the fault is.

I have even gone as far as buying another set of spokes off Steve White (Cheers Steve) to slot in and see if they improve the line up. But I still have the same probs.

I'll post up some photos of what I have and some more info.

Right this is the bike from the rear with my 110/90 rear as I intended to use



As you can see it sits over to the right, look at the rear mudguard.

Noe with the 140/70



Gratuitous photo from the side to show that the engine/carbs/airbox did indeed fit without resorting to big hammers

Right hand side showing spacers



and again



Lefthand side



and again

Ok left hand side swing arm to frame (dust cap over thrust washer)

If you look at it with your head over to the left it makes sense or you can turn the 'pooter on it's side



Righthand side As above



Righthand side from below



Lefthand sid from below

As far as I can work out from the history of the bike it was not in a pile up. Before powder coating I checked for dinks and kinks and cracks!

The engine went in like it was meant to be there, the carbs and airbox fit fine.

With the help of a glamourous assistant (ok that's a lie) the off set has been measured as 10mm off to the right. The affore mentioned assistant has bought the old wheels off me and brought the rear back to compare. While we did not actually fit it back in we measured from the disc face to the centre line of the rim and the three rear wheels we have in our possession all were within a mill of each other.

Said assistant has a Kat with spokes but it also has a JMC swing arm so there were no measurments to be had off that.

Spare swing arms have been compared and it's in the right way up and it does not appear to be twisted warped or generally mis-aligned

and just for good measure the sprockets line up

So back to the original question: Why?

I am sure there are folk on here that have fitted spoked wheel to a standard Kat. Have I missed something?

Ok, this is just a pure guess, but the gap from the swing arm to the sprocket looks quite wide. But you say the sprockets line up ???

Someone will be along to help I am sure.

Pete

Maybe the alloy rim has been laced up with a 10mm offset...................

bobster wrote:Maybe the alloy rim has been laced up with a 10mm offset...................

Well Bobster, I had thought that but then when the other wheel did the same, that kind of threw me. At the bike club I go to there was a lot of discussion about this and "re-lacing with a another extra 10mm offset" was suggested (along with "don't worry about it)

Was wondering if anyone else had come across this one before.

You could always remove 10mm from the left hand wheel spacer and shift the wheel over to the left, then add a 10mm spacer to the right hand side to take up the clearance. But then the sprocket would be 10mm from where it needs to be.............so remove 10mm fron the sprocket carrier machined face, so it goes back to where it wants to be!

Had lots of trouble with the race Kat's spoked rear, i believe the SXZ used GS1000 hubs from the factory. when the bike came to me it had been modded with an underslung caliper and the caliper bracket was kind of floating, it could slide in and out and had worn the pads wedge shaped, very wrong. I swapped the swingarm (the other had the torque arm mount cut off) and put it all back together with std spacers but the caliper was nowhere near fitting, it was a bout 10mm out, To get it lined up i had to put a wider spacer between the wheel and caliper bracket, still don't think it's 100% perfect but it's acceptable.
The sxz manual shows the spoke wheel with the std spacers, very odd these spoke wheels

Have you put straight edges along side the wheels front to back to check your wheel alignment ? does it show the same 10mm offset ?, if it does and your sure nothings bent then Bobsters answer seems the way to go.